He may have been 'bitterly disappointed' with his team's surprise elimination from the NRL premiership race on Saturday against the Warriors but Storm coach Craig Bellamy paid tribute to his players for taking him on 'one hell of a ride' in 2011.
Backing up after a horror 2010 season in which the club were stripped of their 2007 and 2009 titles as well as the minor premierships they had claimed from 2006-08 for salary cap cheating, there were low expectations on Bellamy's team.
Having been consigned to last place 12 months earlier because of the scandal and then been forced to offload a host of star players including Greg Inglis, Ryan Hoffman and Brett White, the Storm weren't expected to be serious challengers.
But they beat Manly on the opening weekend at home at AAMI Park and went on to finish with the JJ Giltinan Shield as minor premiers thanks largely to a 12-game winning streak between Round 12 and 24, and Bellamy has enjoyed what his men have achieved despite their shock exit.
"I'm certainly disappointed but at the same time as I said to the players I'm really proud of what they've done this year," Bellamy said.
"I don't care what else comes out of tonight, we are bitterly disappointed, but at the same time this club has come a long way to what we were this time last year."
"We've had a lot of new players come to our club, obviously half our squad were here last year and they know how tough it was and no one else would know how tough it was unless you went through it."
"But they've given me, they've given each other, they've given our staff and they've given all of our supporters, one hell of a ride this year and like I said I'm really proud of them."
"I'm really disappointed with tonight but at the same time that's not going to dull the pride I feel for these players and what they've done this year."
As well as his disappointment, Bellamy was left frustrated by the fact that his team simply couldn't cope with the superb performance from the Warriors, who were deserved 20-12 winners of a game they controlled for much of the night.
"We weren't quite good enough on the night," he added.
"We just couldn't get any field position at all."
"The Warriors played really well they obviously controlled the ball really well."
"We couldn't buy a penalty and we just struggled with field position."
"(But) I thought our guys were fairly brave."
"They defended really well, the Warriors had a lot of good field position and a few repeat sets."
"It was just one of those nights that things didn't go our way too much but at the same time the Warriors played good and deserved their luck."
While Bellamy also vowed that while he hopes to be able to improve the team 'in a couple of areas' via recruitment, there's no secret to the fact that hard work will again be the cornerstone of his side's 2012 preparation.
Captain Cam Smith echoed Bellamy's thoughts on the year as a whole.
"We put ourselves in a great position to reach the grand final this year but it didn't go that way," Smith said.
"I guess next year it's on again but I think as Craig touched on, we can all be very proud of what